Rokas Stulpinas, Ieva Jakiunaite, Agne Sidabraite, Allan Rasmusson, Dovile Zilenaite-Petrulaitiene, Kestutis Strupas, Arvydas Laurinavicius, Aiste Gulla
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Our study included 41 patients fulfilling the Milan criteria preoperatively and aimed to identify individuals at high risk of post-resection HCC relapse, which occurred in 18 out of 41 patients (43.9%), retrospectively. We analyzed whole slide images of CD8 immunohistochemistry with automated segmentation of tissue classes and detection of CD8+ lymphocytes. The image analysis outputs were subsampled using a hexagonal grid-based method to assess spatial distribution of CD8+ lymphocytes with regards to the epithelial edges. The CD8+ lymphocyte density indicators, along with clinical, radiological, post-surgical and pathological variables, were tested to predict HCC relapse. Low standard deviation of CD8+ density along the tumor edge and R1 resection emerged as independent predictors of shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS). In particular, patients presenting with both adverse predictors exhibited 100% risk of relapse within 200 days. Our results highlight the potential utility of integrating CD8+ density variability and surgical margin to identify a high relapse-risk group among Milan criteria-fulfilling HCC patients. Validation in cohorts with core biopsy could provide CD8+ distribution data preoperatively and guide preoperative decisions, potentially prioritizing liver transplantation for patients at risk of incomplete resection (R1) and thereby improving overall treatment outcomes significantly.
期刊介绍:
Current Oncology is a peer-reviewed, Canadian-based and internationally respected journal. Current Oncology represents a multidisciplinary medium encompassing health care workers in the field of cancer therapy in Canada to report upon and to review progress in the management of this disease.
We encourage submissions from all fields of cancer medicine, including radiation oncology, surgical oncology, medical oncology, pediatric oncology, pathology, and cancer rehabilitation and survivorship. Articles published in the journal typically contain information that is relevant directly to clinical oncology practice, and have clear potential for application to the current or future practice of cancer medicine.